In the last 40,000 years, there have been at least ten gigantic landslides of more than 100 cubic kilometers in the North Atlantic ocean alone. Each of these was capable of producing waves tens to hundreds of meters in height and according to a new report, this is only one of the many possible planetary disasters that could cause extinction.

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Researchers have discovered an 8.6-meter long reptile with a massive skull and sharp teeth that lived 244 million years ago, during the Triassic Period. It’s been described as an early ichthyosaur, a four-footed reptile that turned seafarer.

One in five of Earth’s invertebrate species are currently threatened with extinction. These creatures represent 99% of the biodiversity on Earth. Until now, scientists haven’t attempted a comprehensive review of the conservation status of this many species. Less than 1% of invertebrates had been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Sri Lankan Kandyan dwarf toad (Adenomus kandianus) was thought to be extinct. It’s still listed as extinct, and hadn’t been seen in almost 135 years. A. kandianus was first discovered in a freshwater stream in Sri Lanka in 1872. It was last seen in 1876. Exhaustive surveys had failed to find any trace of it until 2009, where a cataloging effort of the region’s forests spotted four unusual toads in a fast-flowing stream.

The greatest mass extinction pulse was the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and it happened about 250 million years ago, nearly wiping out life on Earth. It was Earth’s most severe extinction even, with 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. It is the only known mass extinction that affected insects, 57% of all families and 83% of all genera were extinguished.

These colorful photos of two species of Dendrobatidae, from the Reptile House at the London Zoo, feature these critically endangered amphibians in all of their dangerous glory, since these are poison dart frogs, frogs whose toxic skin excretions are used in blowdarts.